Accounts Off Of My Credit Report

Federal law (US Code Title 15, §1681c) controls the behavior of credit reporting agencies. This law is known as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Under FCRA §605 (a) and (b), an account in collection will appear on a consumer’s credit report for 7½ years. The clock starts approximately 180 days after the date of first delinquency on the account. To learn when an account will be removed by the credit reporting agencies (TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian and others), add 7½ years to the date of first delinquency. Subsequent activity, such as resolving the debt, is irrelevant to this rule. The seven-year rule does not apply to all debts, however. Here are four exceptions:

• A tax lien can appear for seven years from the date of payment.
• A bankruptcy will appear for 10 years from the date of the final order.
• Federal student loans can be reported for as long as they are delinquent. (Private student loans follow the 7½-year rule.)
• A civil judgment can appear for seven years, or the length of a judgment’s statute of limitations in the consumer’s state, whichever is longer.

Learn the lifespan of a judgment in your state at the Bills.com Statute of Limitations Laws by State page.

The start of the seven-year begins at the date of first delinquency, or if no payments are made, when the first payment was due. Review your credit report carefully to make certain the dates of first delinquency are reported correctly. Unscrupulous collection agents reset the date of first delinquency to stretch out how long a derogatory account appears on consumer’s credit report. This is illegal under the FCRA.

Just because a debt does not appear on a credit report does not mean the statute of limitations for the debt has passed. The opposite is also true: The passing of a state statute of limitations on a debt does not mean the debt may not appear on a credit report. The federal FCRA and state statutes of limitations are separate and independent of each other.

Whether a debt appears on a credit report does not establish legal liability for the debt. The opposite is also true: You may have legal liability for a debt not reported to the credit reporting agencies. Credit reports are not legal records of every debt a person owes.

Your Question

The rules dictating when listings must be removed from your credit report apply only to derogatory items; positive credit items, such as credit card debts which you have kept current, can remain on your credit reports indefinitely. The date you opened the account is irrelevant. For example, if you opened an account in 1985, and stopped making payments in 2003, then the account should fall off your credit report sometime in 2010.

The new "reported date" should not affect the date on which the account will be removed from your credit report. Again, the seven year time period runs from the date of first delinquency. If you think that any item is appearing on your credit report incorrectly, you should consider disputing the items with the major credit reporting agencies. You can read more about how to dispute inaccurate credit report items by visiting FTC.gov.

To learn more about credit, credit reports, and credit scoring, I invite you to visit the Bills.com Credit Information page.

I wish you the best of luck in your efforts to repair your credit report, and hope that the information I have provided helps you Find. Learn. Save.

Best,

Bill

Bills.com